Thursday, June 17, 2004

Quick Hits

A few words about my recent reading material...

Fantastic Four #514 $2.25

I've loved this book for quite awhile, but I have missed a few arcs now and then, and sadly I wish I'd have stayed away from this one. Waid's FF characterization is still great, but he manages to drop the ball in a few places. the new Frightful Four seems cliched and waaaay too over the top, I've never liked the Wizard anyway, but he's downright horrible in this book. On top of that we have Johnny Storm, a celebrity, meeting someone in person that he met off the internet. Were this a book starring people who's identities weren't publicly known then I could buy it, but the FF are much smarter than that, both individually and as a team. I will give Waid this, he has a definite knowledge of FF history, and tries to use it to his advantage, but this just doesn't touch his previous work on the book. Here's hoping it gets better. Oh, and the art is as beautiful as ever.

Ulitmate Fantastic Four #7 $2.25

Sigh...why the hell are there two FF books sent out in the same week? Why not delay one by at least a week? It justdoesn't make sense to me. That said, this issue marks the new creative team of Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen, and like the other FF issue this week, just seems disappointing. Keeping in mind I've never been a huge Ellis fan. However the art is great. I did like Ellis throwing in the Man-Thing for abrief second, makes me wonder what's coming up, maybe he has ties to the Negative Zone! I was excited at the prospect of bringing Doom into the book, but Ellis' Doom just seems over the top, and the "costume" idea is something that just seemed idiotic. So, yeah, hopefully this one gets better as well.

Cable & Deadpool #4 $2.99

Big sigh here...Fabes, just like Waid, is dropping the ball (consistently) on this book. Rather than keep with the progression the characters have made since he last worked on thed, Fabes has regressed them to their original state, making the book feel like an over-the-top action flik with a plot that could crumble to the ground at any moment.

Wolverine: The End #4 $2.99

Paul Jenkins continues to write the booked to his Origin series, and to Wolvie's life, with mixed results. Introducing a new character that has supposedly been watching Logan throughout his 200+ years of existence, and apparently has had run ins with him quite a few times, only to have it covered up by, among other things, Professor Xavier? Seems like cutting your own throat to me. Gladly this is a mini, and doesn't get on the shelves with any regularity so it hasn't felt like a huge waste of money, but does seem like a waste of time.

Is it me or does it seem Marvel as a company is regressing to their early 90's persona? Sad.

More later.

-L

Blown Up by
LGP

2 comments:

My shop didn't have Ex Machina, but it's doubtful I'd have picked it up anyway. I had high hopes for Ellis' FF run, not being bogged down by decades of continuity I thought it would be excellent. I'm sticking with it, at least for a couple more issues. I wanted to pick up Challengers, I'm glad I didn't now. I'vebeen an on-again, off-again Chaykin fan for years, but I had my doubts about this project being that good. Just finished Seaguy #2, hopefully I'll get a review of it up tomorrow, or hell, maybe tonight, who knows!